I am going through Long’s back catalogue and finding random books I somehow forget to read. I’d thought I caught the entire Pennyroyal Green series but I was mistaken. And what a mistake!
Plot: Alex, our Dukal hero, is ready to marry again, some years after his wife’s death. He courted a beautiful young lady who accepted his hand, and then promptly Ian Eversea into her bed. Alex does not do well with betrayal. So he decides, like the mature man of “nearly forty“, he was going to get revenge on Ian, by compromising and abandoning Ian’s youngest sister. Genevieve Eversea however, is deeply in love with her lifelong friend Harry, and rather preoccupied with his recent announcement that he will be proposing to their mutual friend, the curvy, simple, and very sweet Millicent. Also, for all that Genevieve is a young, gently bred lady, she sees through Alex’s bullshit like no one else ever has. Unfortunately, he sees through hers too. Shenanigans ensue.
This is classic Long. Pile on the ridiculous tropes, and silly premises, and then write deeply grounded, human characters with serious flaws that make their ridiculousness somehow not only believable but relatable. Long has somehow written a May/Dec romance that does not rely on characters acting as someone more or less mature in order for them to make sense together. Alex is worldly while Genevieve is not. He is not drawn to her innocence any more than she is drawn to his experience. Their connection is built on mutual respect, a dark sense of humour, and the joy of finding someone who sees them for who they are and loves them for it so much it helps them become themselves more fully.
It isn’t only the characters, though. Long’s worlds often pulse with a certain frantic energy. Everything hums with a life of its own. Everything in every scene is either deliberately interfering with or cooperating with her characters. It makes even set pieces like a table or pavement a mischievous entity with its own end game. It lets the reachers see the world through the eyes of the people in it. It’s a joy to read.
Having said that, there are some tropes here I know are deal breakers for people. For one, this love triangle, or should I say square, with Alex after Genevieve and Genevieve after Harry and Harry after Millicent and Millicent mostly after kittens and the odd swan. This lasts the entire book, it isn’t just a set up for our starting point. It can get tedious. It can also grate for readers that don’t like the idea of a hero or heroine getting their nasty on while proclaiming to be in love with someone else.